Canada’s Atavistia has released 2 incredibly solid albums of epic,  symphonic balanced metal since 2020 in The Winter Way and Cosmic Warfare, which made my 2023 year-end list (I can’t speak for 2017s One Within The Sun debut). And they continue their excellent productivity with a brand new 5 song EP.

Inane Ducam (subtitled ‘I will lead into nothingness’) does two things; it shows off the 2 new band members in bassist/vocalist Spencer Budworth and Elia Baghbaniyan who have joined founder and main man Matt Sippola and drummer Max Sepulveda. it also shows off the band’s surprisingly heavy new direction.

Make no mistake this is still Sippola’s show, but in Spencer Budworth they have added gruff, deep bellows to Sippola’s array of rasps and choirs- and it elevates an already great band to something still great, but downright heavier.

The core of the band is still sweeping, orchestrally/chorally heavy, bombastic Wintersun-ish styled melodic black-ish metal. However, Budworth’s vocal addition and what appears to be a down tuning of the guitars and even an overall heavier production make things more menacing and dark than the band’s prior cosmic, airy hues.

There also appears to have been some self-editing for this EP as there are no 9-12 minute songs, which have been pretty standard on Atavistia albums. These songs all come in around 4-8 minutes or so.

After the intro, “Timeless Despair” immediately shows the band’s subtle new shift with Budworth front and center and some sterner, bludgeoning riffs amid the sweeping, majestic sound.

The next two tracks “Dark Isolation”  and “Unattained Creation” deliver surprisingly pretty hefty mid-paced marches and is by far the heaviest songs the band has delivered, even with some epic blasting, and soaring choral arrangements.

The closing track “The Void” is a slightly more typical Atavistia track with a longer run time,  300bpm blasts, and gobs of orchestra and choir. But still thick with a heavier sterner sound.

Yet another killer release from these guys, that’s 3 in 4 years (meanwhile Wintersun has only released 3 albums since 2004).  And the tweaked sound is really well done while keeping the band’s epic, core sound. How these guys aren’t on a decent label yet is beyond me.

[Visit the band's website]

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